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Auto-Biography of 



Archibald Alexander Glenn* 




\orn in Nicholas County, Kentucky, January 30th, 
1819; Died at Wichita, Kansas, May 21st, 
1901. Aged eighty-twoo years, three 
months and twenty-two days* 



After life's fitful fever he sleeps Kelt." 




Archibald Alexander Glenn. 



Born in Nicholas County, Kentucky, January 30th, 1819, 
Died at Wichita, Kansas, May 21st, 1901, 



Auto-Biography of 



Archibald Alexander Glenn. 



Born in Nicholas County, Kentucky, January 30th, 

1819; Died at Wichita, Kansas, May 21st, 

1901. Aged eighty -two years, three 

months and twenty-two days. 



( After life's fitful fever he sleeps well." 



AUTO-BIOGRAPHY OF JUDGE GLENN. 

^^l 5 " 

"Judge Glenn is dead." *vjT"^ f\b-r 

The news was passed from neignbor to neighbor, from 
friend to friend, until the entire city had heard the sad 
news before noon yesterday. He died peacefully at 10:40 
a. m., after a sickness of exactly seven weeks. 

Judge Glenn died from old age. He would have been 82 
had he lived until January 30. 

As the spirit fled the dumb brutes realized it. His faith- 
ful dog sat on the porch of the family residence at 721 
North Topeka avenue and mourned as a faithful dog can. 

The sad news was passed about from neighbor to n2igh- 
bor and from friend to friena so rapidly that everybody 
in town knew before noon that Judge Glenn was dead. 

Judge Glenn's last word was "Help." 

Nearly everybody in Wichita knew Judge Glenn, and 
everybody who knew him loved him. He made friends 
without effort. His natural disposition was such that he 
could not make enemies. His ways were simple. 

Personally Judge Glenn was as genial as the first fine 
day in spring. He did not feel or seem old mentally, al- 
though feeble physically. It was a positive delight to 
spend an hour with him in his office. He had a wonderful 
memory and could recite poems of many stanzas without 
missing a line. He spoke them like a child to his friends 
who were of a social and literary turn. He was fond of 
such old pieces as "John Gilpin," which he would recite 
with great energy, humor and enthusiasm. 

Judge Glenn was himself a poet of rare merit. He pub- 
lished many pieces in the Eagle from time to time and had 
a great many he never published. All of them were clean, 
inspiring and well written. He had the mind and heart of 
a poet. 

Judge Glenn had been a Democrat for nearly fifty years, 
but never an extreme or unreasonable partisan. He at- 
tended all the Democratic conventions and was always 
accorded the honor of being asked to speak. There was 
no buncombe about him. He talked patriotic Democracy. 
During the civil war he lined up with the north, although 
Tiaving been born in the south. 

As pension agent in Wichita for twenty years he had a 
great deal to do with old soldiers, and they all liked him. 



Auto- Biography of Judge Glenn 5 

His office was headquarters for the men who wore the 
blue. He was a good advisor and a good friend to them 
and had a faculty for winning cases in the pension depart- 
ment that few men of his limited sphere of practice pos- 
sessed. He had a high credit in the pension department, 
for he never accepted or prosecuted a case that he did not 
believe was absolutely meritorious. 

Judge Glenn above an things was an honest man, abso- 
lutely reliable in all positions, public and private. He was 
a religious man also. He had a fine conception of the 
Creator and of His plan and purpose in organizing the 
human family. He talked much about it with men who 
had the capacity to receive his ideas on that exalted 
subject. 

Judge Glenn died of old age. He took to his bed the 
very night he was re-elected city treasurer by the unani- 
mous vote of the people of Wichita regardless of politics. 
He never left that bed. His friends knew he never would. 
His death was expected several weeks ago. He knew that 
his end was near, and during the lajst year said frequently 
that his days were not many. 

Judge Glenn was an honored and gifted representative 
of the Masonic fraternity. With the natural gifts of a 
poet he has rendered many odes and sonnets dedicated to 
the order. His classic poem, "Light," which he dedicated 
to Wichita Consistory in the summer of 1895, has been 
widely distributed and is a spendidly rendered tribute to 
the relations existing between the occult science of the 
east and Masonry. Thirty-six years ago last October, 
Mr. Charles Lease, proprietor of the Rock Island drug 
store of this city, was a delegate, armed with proxies, to 
the session of the Grand Lodge of Illinois. He was then 
Master of A. W. Rawson Lodge, No. 147, of that grand 
jurisdiction, and the call of votes for Grand Secretary 
was made by numbers in the order of the lodges enumer- 
ated in the jurisdiction. Mr. Lease was on the floor of 
the Grand Lodge, and as the vote was cast he promptly 
called out "Three votes for Archibald A. Glenn." That 
was thirty-six years ago, and the two men separated, per- 
haps never to meet again. But they did meet, and in 
Wichita. Governor Glenn and Charlie Lease remembered 
each other and recalled the stirring times of that era of 
American history, when the solid south and the greater 
solid north met Masonically as the great fraternity of 
universal brotherhood. These two men, both prominent 



6 Auto-Biograpl y of Judge Glenn 

Masons in their time, had mingled on the checkered 
carpet; they had exchanged fraternal greetings within the 
confines of the tessalated Border; together they had ap- 
proached the altar before the Grand East. And now 
away out here in the middle west they again met after 
almost a generation of changes. One had gone his way 
and the other his, and neither imagined that they would 
meet again. But they did and here in the city of the 
plans, where all aristocracy is leveled and where the all- 
consuming fire of energy and native life pushes out unto 
the acme of endeavor and achievement. Today Governor 
Glenn lies cold and lifeless, but he casts a penumbra over 
the gala activity of the city's pride, its life, its busy ranks. 
Today Mr. Lease is living and he remembers with feelings 
of tenderness and gentle sympathy those other days of 
the long ago when he stepped forth proudly in response 
to the call of the Grand Master of the Grand Jurisdiction 
of Illinois almost half a century ago, and cast three bal- 
lots from his own lodge, A. W. Rawson, No. 147 of 
Pecatonica, for the office of Grand Secretary. of the Grand 
Lodge of mat jurisdiction. Together they had been men 
and brethren; together they had clasped hands under the 
dim shaded glow of the triple candle lights on the north 
side of the sacred altar, and last night after thirty-six 
years past and gone they separated again, and for the last 
time Governor Glenn has gone, but Charlie Lease remains 
but who will say that they will not meet again, some- 
where, some time, out and amid those strange and un- 
known spaces between Here and There, where the pangs 
of obscured genius such as was the lot of Governor Glenn, 
and the disappointments of Mr. Lease, and they are, per- 
haps, many, will all be wiped away with the white light 
of philanthropic understanding. 

Judge Glenn was possessed of a mind so transparent 
that it absorbed everything that came to him, and so re- 
spondent that it reflected back to his kind the best that it 
found. Masons in Wichita will long feel a great void, and 
they will remember him as one who wrought faithfully 
among the quarries and at the last submitted to the Su- 
preme Architect of the Universal Temple such perffected 
samples of his workmanship as will elicit from the 
Eternal Grand Senior Warden the lasting encomium of 
"Well done, goodv and faithful servant; enter thou into 
the joys of the blest." 



Auto-Biography of Judge Glenn 7 

Judge Glenn had also been an Odd Fellow for a great 
many years and was much respected in that order. 

The following autibiography was written by Judge 
Glenn for the Eagle a few months before he died. It is a 
brief and unornamented narrative of the principal events 
in his singular eventful life. 

"My name is Archibald Alexander Glenn. I was born in 
Nicholas County, Kentucky, January 30, 1819. My father and 
mother were Henry Glenn and Ruth Glenn, nee Rhodes. 
My paternal grand-parents were Archibald Glenn and 
Sarah Glenn, nee Ferguson. Both were natives of the 
Emerald Isles; both came to America when quite young. 
My maternal grand-parents were Jacob Rhodes, (a native 
of Germany) and Elizabeth Rhodes, whose maiden name 
was Furlow, her father and mother were Robert Furlow, 
and Kitty, his wife, nee "Kitty Maguire," both natives 
of Ireland. 

"My grand-father, Archibald Glenn, came to America, 
I think, in 1770, when about 20 years of age. He served 
through the entire war of the revolution in the American 
army. I think in the Pennsylvania line. There were four 
brothers who came to the colonies together, James, John, 
Archibald and Andrew, all of whom served through the 
Revolutionary war. There descendants are scattered all 
over the country from the Alleghenies to the Pacific and 
from the lakes on the north to the gulf on the south. 

"My father was born in Pennsylvania, February 3, 
1787, but removed with nis father's family to Kentucky 
about 1790 . 

"My mother was born in Mason County, Kentucky, Jan- 
uary 7, 1790. In 1821 my father removed to the state of 
Indiana where he lived seven years and then moved to 
Illinois, first to Vermillion County, afterward to Schuyler 
County, where he died April 15, 1832. 

"My opportunities for an education were limited. While 
we lived in Indiana, I attended a subscription school for 
a couple of years, where I learned to spell and read. 
After my father's death I was sent to a similar school for 
three months, which completed my education, so far as 
schools are concerned. When I left school I could not 
write my own name, and at the age of 13 on the death of 
my father I entered the battle of life but poorly equipped 
for the struggle. I was a great reader and having a re- 



$ Auto Biography of Judge Glenn 

tentive memory and reading every book that came into 
my hands, I managed to gain a fair English education. 

"I worked on my mother's farm until I was 18, then as 
.a means of widening my knowledge, went into a printing 
office and became a printer. I followed that business for 
several years and then taught school three or four years 
and then went into merchandising on a small scale in a 
country village, Ripley, Brown County, Illinois. I began 
my political life as a Whig and remained so until the 
breaking up of the great party in 1855, when I became ai 
Democrat, as that party more nearly represented my 
views on the great political questions of the day than any 
other, and since that time I have acted with the Demo- 
cratic party. During the war I was a war Democrat. 

"In 1848 I was elected justice of the peace, being the 
first office I ever held, except school director. In 1849 I 
was appointed postmaster of Ripley, that being the only 
appointive office I ever held. I served as postmaster and 
justice of the peace until 1852, when I removed to Mt. 
Sterling, the county seat of Brown County. In the mean- 
time I had married. On the 13th aay of February, 1851, 
I was married to Miss Lavinia Cooper, of Pike County, 
Illinois, with whom I lived until her death in 1881. 

"In the fall of 1853, I was elected clerk of the district 
court of Brown County, which office I held by repeated 
elections until 1865. During all of this time I was ,ex-officio 
recorder of deeds, and during four years of the period I 
was twice elected superintendent of schools for Brown 
•County. Also in November, 1861, while holding these 
-offices I was elected delegate to the state constitutional 
convention of 1862. My district was composed of the coun- 
ties of Pike and Brown and Alexander Starne of Pike 
•County, who was afterward elected state treasurer, was 
my colleague 

"I met many eminent men of Illinois in that convention, 
among whom I recall the names of Melville W Fuller, now 
chief justice of the United States, who with Long John 
Wentworth and the late Judge Elliott Anthony, repre- 
sented Cook County. Wm. J. Allen, now United States 
district judge for the southern district of Illinois; Judge 
George W. Wall, of the Illinois appellate court; Augustus 
C. French, governor of Illinois from 1844 to 1852; Anthony 
Thorton of Shelby County, afterward judge of the su- 
preme court of Illinois; Orlando B. Ticklin, of Colea 



Auto- Biography of Judge Glenn 9 

County, representative in congress from Illinois for eight 
years; Albert G. Burr of Scott County, afterwards mem- 
ber of congress; General James W. Singleton, of Quincy, 
afterwards representative in congress; Thomas W. Mc- 
Neely, of Menard County, afterwards member of con- 
gress; Lewis W. Ross, who so long represented the Ful- 
ton district in congress; Alexander Campbell, of La Salle, 
also late member of congress; judge Norman H. Purple 
and John Manning, two eminent jurists, and many others 
then or afterwards prominent in politics or in law. 

"In 1868 I was elected on the Democratic ticket, member 
of the state board of equalization of taxes from the dis- 
trict composed of the counties of Menard, Cass, Schuyler, 
Brown and Morgan, and served four years on that body. 
My recollection is that I was elected by a large majority, 
as I carried every county in the district. I do not recol- 
lect my opponent's name, but he was the editor of the 
Republican paper at Virginia, Cass County. 

"In 1872 I was nominated for state senator in the Thirty- 
sixth senatorial district, then composed of the counties cf 
Brown, Cass, Mason and Menard and was elected by 2,200 
majority, carrying every county in the district. 

"The first session of the Twenty-ninth general assembly 
of the state of Illinois to which I had been elected, con- 
vened at Springfield, on the 8th day of January, 1873, and 
continued until May 6, 1873, when it adjourned to January 
8, 1874, when it met in what is known as the "adjourned 
session." John L. Beveridge was lieutenant-governor 
and president of the senate. Richard J. Oglesby being gov- 
ernor. Gov. Oglesby soon after inauguration was elected 
to the United States Senate to succeed Senator Richard 
Yates. Beveridge became governor, leaving. the senato 
without a presiding officer. Senator John Earley, of Win-* 
nebago County, a Republican, was elected president of the 
senate and became ex-officio lieutenant-governor. He 
served in that capacity two years, but as his office as 
senator expired at the end of his two years service, the 
senate when it met January 6, 1875, was again without 
a presiding officer. 

"For the organization of the senate and the election of 
its officials, I refer you to the Senate Journal of that 
session. At this session of the legislature no party had 



10 Auto Biography of Judge Glenn 

a majority in either house. In the senate the members 

divided politically, were: 

Republicans 24 

Democrats 19 

Independents S 

Total 51 

"Requiring- 26 to elect, the independents holding the bal- 
ance of power 

•'Afrer balloting twenty-nine times, by a union of the 
Democrats and Independents, I was elected by the re- 
quisite vote (26), and thus became president of the senate 
and exofficio lieutenant-governor of the great state of 
Illinois, which I filled to January 7, 1877, when I was suc- 
ceeded by Lieutenant-Governor Andrew Shuman of Cook 
County, who was my successful competitor for that office 
at the election in 1876. 

"While filling- the position of lieutenant-governor in the 
absence of Governor Beveridge from the state, I served 
abut two and a half months as governor. 

"In 1865 I engaged in the banking business in Mt. 
Sterling, Illinois, and for many years was interested in 
farming, shipping stock and packing pork. In 1877, owing 
to a failure of my health and my inability to manage my 
large business interests, I was compelled to make an as- 
signment and give up my business. In 1878, having 
partially regained my health, I determined to take 
Greeley's advice and 'go west and grow up with the 
■country.' I was then only 59 years of age. Accordingly 
in October of that year, I removed to Wichita, Kansas, 
where I have lived ever since. 

"In 1881, I was elected police judge of the city of 
Wichita and was twice re-elected and served in that 
position until 1887. In 1895 I was elected justice of the 
peace and re-elected in 1897, serving altogether four years 
in that capacity. In 1899 I was elected city treasurer of 
'Wichita by a majority of 1,186 over the regular Republi- 
can nominee and that in a city usually giving a Republi- 
can majority of 500. 

"I have been married twice, first on the 13th day of 
February, 1851, to Miss Lavinia Cooper, a native of Pike 
County, Illinois, who died in Wichita, Kansas, on the 28th 
day of. May, 1881, and second to Miss Kate Strickler, a 
native of Dayton, Ohio, to whom I was married on the 



Auto-Biography of Judge Glenn 11 

9th day of June, 1885. My first wife bore me six children, 
three of whom died in infancy and one in early childhood, 
leaving me a son and daughter. My son, William C. 
Glenn, is an attorney of Webb City, Mo. My daughter, 
Mrs. Ella Glenn Shields, lives with me at Wichita, Kan- 
sas. She has been married twice and twice widowed. I 
have three grand-cnildren — all boys — Wm. Glenn Shields, 
my daughter's only child and Robert A. and Archibald A. 
Glenn, Jr., children of my son, Wm. C. Glenn. 

"In 1858 I was licensed as an attorney at law and prac- 
ticed several years in Illinois and in Kansas, but my 
specialty has been pensions, of which I have obtained over 
a thousand in the last few years. 

"I am now nearly 82 years of age, and weigh 186 pounds 
and am five feet ten inches high. I am now far down the 
western declivity of time. I have outlived all my school- 
mates but three, and have outlived nearly all the men 
who entered public life when I did and while I am still a 
hale, hearty old man, I feel that my work is nearly done 
and that I too, must soon go to 'that undiscovered coun- 
try from whose bourne no traveler returns.' I feel that I 
have lived through the grandest eighty years in all the 
world's history." 



The above was written in response to a request from 
The Eagle and is very complete, except in his Masonic 
history. For nearly a half century he had been a member 
of the A. F. and A. M. and a 32 degree Mason for over 
thirty-four years. 

In November, 1899, he began to decline with no particular 
disease except a growing weakness, and loss of vitality, 
which continued all winter. 

At the April election he was re-elected city treasurer 
of Wichita, by a unanimous vote, there being no nomi- 
nation made against him. By this beautiful acknowledge- 
ment of his integrity, faithfulness and usefulness in his 
feeble health and old age, he was deeply touched. On the 
morning following his re-election, April 2, he was unable 
to rise from his bed, and never rallied, passing away on 
Tuesday morning, May 21st. 

The beautiful and impressive service of the Consistory 



12 Auto Biography of Judge Glenn 

was held at the Masonic Temple on Thursday night, and 
after a service at the Christian church on the following 
morning, his remains were laid to rest in Maple Grove 
Cemetery, by the members of the A. F. and A. M. No. 99— 
honored, loved and mourned in death, as he had been in 
life. 

"He giveth his beloved, sleep." 




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